Category Archives: Comedy

Quiz Lady review — Good times with Awkwafina and Sandra Oh

November 22, 2023 flawintheiris

Directed by Jessica Yu | Written by Jen D'Angelo | 99 min | ▲▲▲▲△ | Disney + Isn't it odd how few *pure* comedies we see these days? It's a genre that doesn't really exist anymore as a box office force. Sure, we get comedy horrors, comedy fantasies, comedy romances, even comedy superhero movies, but…Read More

Testament review — Satire slides from sharp to blunt

November 12, 2023 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Deny Arcand | 115 min | ▲▲△△△ Well, you can't accuse Deny Arcand of a lack of nerve. The veteran Canadian filmmaker has returned to his favourite storytelling perspective — the discontent of the bourgeoise, particularly its white male contingent — and is taking his opportunity to wade into hot button…Read More

The Holdovers review — A new Christmas classic

November 8, 2023 flawintheiris

Directed by Alexander Payne | Written by David Hemingson | 133 min | ▲▲▲▲▲ | Amazon Prime Alexander Payne is the director of wry, gentle, and humanist American features like Election, About Schmidt, Sideways, The Descendants, Nebraska, and Downsizing. His new film, The Holdovers, might be the best one yet. He and his collaborators have…Read More

Freelance review — About as bad as it looks

October 27, 2023 flawintheiris

Directed by Pierre Morel | Written by Jacob Lentz | ▲△△△△ John Cena has the world by the tail. He's beloved by children and a feature performer in multiple big budget film franchises. With all his clout, why is this the material he signs onto? I could ask the same question of Alison Brie, who…Read More

The Persian Version review — Comedy and drama jostle awkwardly

October 25, 2023 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Maryam Keshavarz | 107 min | ▲▲▲△△ Leila (Layla Mohammadi) is a New Yorker, raised in an American-Iranian family, the only girl in a house with eight brothers. She's an out lesbian, but in the wake of the end of her relationship with another woman sleeps with a male actor in…Read More

Carbon Arc Cinema Review: Amanda

October 12, 2023 flawintheiris

I am the Artistic Director at Carbon Arc Cinema, part of a group of programmers who choose the films we screen. Written and Directed by Carolina Cavalli | 93 min | Carbon Arc Cinema Our film from last weekend, Scrapper, was the debut from a British filmmaker, and this week we have another debut, this…Read More

Totally Killer review — A righteous sci-fi/horror/comedy mash-up

October 12, 2023 flawintheiris

Directed by Nahnatchka Khan | Written by David Matalon, Sasha Perl-Raver and Jen D'Angelo | 106 min | ▲▲▲▲△ | Amazon Prime From the director of Always Be My Maybe comes this wacky and wildly entertaining spoof of teen, slasher, and time travel movies. Yup, it's in the spirit of Scream but crossed with Hot Tub…Read More

Carbon Arc Cinema review: Scrapper

October 3, 2023 flawintheiris

I'm the new Artistic Director at Carbon Arc Cinema, part of a group of programmers who choose the films we screen. Written and Directed by Charlotte Regan | 84 min | Carbon Arc Cinema Georgie (Lola Campbell) is a willful, self-determined 12-year-old. She lives in a council estate in suburban London, alone since her mother…Read More

The Knox Office: Flora and Son, The Great Seduction, and Jawan

October 1, 2023 flawintheiris

On Friday I returned to my column on CBC radio's Information Morning. The Knox Office is my biweekly chance to review films on the radio, and on this edition I share reviews of three international films screening in cinemas and online. You can go here to listen to the clip. (And for a flashback to…Read More

Bottoms review — Broad, bawdy, and hilarious

September 24, 2023 flawintheiris

Directed by Emma Seligman | Written by Seligman and Rachel Sennott | 91 min | ▲▲▲▲△ | Amazon Prime PJ and Josie (Sennott and Ayo Edebiri) are at the bottom of their high school's social strata, two gay teens who don't get any attention from anyone. Determined to change their fortunes, and get laid in…Read More